Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Leonard Walter Bush was born in London, England on June 6, 1927 and contracted polio as a child which left him with a limp for the rest of his life. He studied and played violin before switching to bass at sixteen. By 17 he was playing professionally in a variety show called The Rolling Stones and Dawn. He played with Nat Gonella in the middle of the 1940s but turned to bebop later in the decade.
From 1950 onwards Lennie did a lot of freelance work and worked with Roy Fox in 1951. He was one of the founding members of London’s Club Eleven, the first London jazz club to offer performers a paid gig. He played there from 1952-1956 in a band with Ronnie Scott, trumpeter Hank Shaw, pianist Tommy Pollard, and drummer Tony Crombie.
He studied with James Merrett at the Guildhall School of Music and participated in the European tours of Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Zoot Sims, and Roy Eldridge. Becoming a member of Jack Parnell’s ATV Orchestra in 1957, he recorded with Stephane Grappelli, Anita O’Day, and Eddie Vinson. He continued to play in the 1990s as part of the Ralph Sharon Trio with Jack Parnell. During that decade he also appeared with Don Lusher’s Ted Heath tribute band and played in the final Ted Heath concert in 2000.
Double bassist Lennie Bush continued to freelance into the 2000s until his death on June 15, 2004.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Hugh Marsh was born June 5, 1955 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and brought up in Ottawa, Ontario, where he learned to play the violin from the age of five. While in high school, when trying to play the saxophone he was led to exploring jazz, funk and rhythm and blues. With his father’s encouragement, he transferred these improvisation skills to the electric violin.
By 1978, Marsh was invited by jazz musician Moe Koffman to perform with him in a concert series at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. This led to gigs at top Toronto clubs and to perform with Canadian jazz musicians Doug Riley, Claude Ranger, Sonny Greenwich and Don Thompson. In 1979 he joined Bruce Cockburn, recording and touring with him.
In 1984, he recorded his independent album The Bear Walks and was distributed by Duke Street Records. He was joined by Doug Riley on keyboards, Peter Cardinali on bass, and Michael Brecker on tenor saxophone. His next recording ventured into other genres mixed with jazz. Since 1990 HUgh has recorded and toured with Celtic songstress Loreena McKennitt, contributing to six multi-platinum albums and a number of world tours. He has worked with Turkish Sufi deejay Mercan Dede, and has worked with Turkish artists Ihsan Ozgen, Kani Karaca, Goksel Baktagir and Ozcan Deniz.
Marsh would go on to collaborate on film scoring projects with composers Harry Gregson Williams and Don Rooke, and with Hans Zimmer on scores for Tears of the Sun and The Da Vinci Code.
In 2004 he joined clarinetist Don Byron’s new quartet “Swiftboat”, along with bassist Kermit Driscoll, and drummer Pheeroan Aklaff. He toured as a member of trumpeter Jon Hassell’s new quartet with bassist Peter Freeman and percussionist Steve Shehan. A four-time winner of the Jazz Report Award for violinist of the year and a three-time recipient of the National Jazz Award for violinist of the year, he has been nominated for a 2007 Juno Award in the best contemporary jazz album category.
Violinist Hugh Marsh continues to perform and record across genres, regularly performing with Rheostatics.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John W. Russell was born on June 4, 1909 in Charlotte, North Carolina but was raised in New York City. He began on violin at age nine, later picking up saxophone and clarinet. He played in both capacities with Jimmy Campbell in 1926, then worked at the Strand Danceland under Earle Howard.
While continuing to play violin in live settings, there are no known recordings of him as a violinist. In the early 1930s after working with Harry White, he replaced Chu Berry in Benny Carter’s ensemble in 1933-34, then joined up with Willie Bryant in 1935-36. Johnny toured with Bobby Martin’s orchestra in Europe in 1938, and played with this group on the soundtrack to the 1938 Erich von Stroheim film, L’alibi; it is for his solos in this recording that he is best known.
Following this Russell remained in Europe to play with Willie Lewis from 1939 to 1941. Upon his return to the U.S. he played with Garvin Bushell briefly before being drafted. He played in military bands, including Russell Wooding’s, during World War II, then played following the war with Cecil Scott in 1945 and Eddie Cornelius.
Tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, and violinist Johnny Russell, who stopped playing full-time later in the 1940s, but occasionally did club dates later in his life, passed away on July 26, 1991 in New York City.
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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Politics, unfortunately, are an integral ingredient in getting their idea of bringing financial stability back to America. Let us continue to practice the use of common sense when it comes to the future of society. As I observe, public companies are following the suggestions of governors to allow entry without masks and without checking. I can’t get with the honor system.
So in maintaining social distancing, this week I have selected the 1998 album Pure Imagination by pianist and composer Eric Reed, released through Impulse! Records. The album contains reinterpretations of traditional songs from classic Broadway and Hollywood productions.
Reed recorded the album on July 28~29, 1997 and was produced by Tommy LiPuma. The musicals from which the songs were taken are (2) West Side Story, (3) The King & I, (4) Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, (5) 42nd Street, (6) A Little Night Music, (7) Porgy & Bess, and (9) Carousel.
It peaked at #8 on Billboard’s Top Jazz Album charts. All songs are written by famous songwriters of said productions except for the opening and closing tracks that were composed by Reed.
Track Listing | 49:52
- Overture ~ 2:02
- Maria (Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, & Stephen Sondheim) ~ 6:35
- Hello, Young Lovers (Rodgers and Hammerstein) ~ 5:16
- Pure Imagination (Leslie Bricusse, & Anthony Newley) ~ 4:04
- 42nd Street (Harry Warren & Al Dubin) ~ 4:07
- Send in the Clowns (Stephen Sondheim) ~ 4:54
- My Man’s Gone Now/Gone, Gone, Gone (DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin) ~ 8:15
- Nice Work If You Can Get It (George & Ira Gershwin) ~ 3:58
- You’ll Never Walk Alone (Rodgers and Hammerstein) ~ 2:18
- I Got Rhythm (George & Ira Gershwin) ~ 5:05
- Finale (Last Trip) ~ 3:40
- Eric Reed – Piano
- Brian Bromberg – Bass
- Reginald Veal – Bass
- Gregory Hutchinson – Drums
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Tom Brown was born in Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana on June 3, 1888. He played trombone with the bands of Papa Jack Laine and Frank Christian, and by 1910 he was usually working with leading bands under his own name. The band played in a style then locally known as “hot ragtime” or “ratty music”. In early 1915, his band was heard by Vaudeville dancer Joe Frisco who then arranged a job for Brown’s band in Chicago, Illinois.
Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland opened up at Lamb’s Cafe in Chicago, this band seems to be the first to be popularly referred to as playing Jass. The term jass, at that time, had a sexual connotation, which drew more people to come to hear the band out of curiosity. Realizing the publicity potential he started calling his group Brown’s Jass Band.
Heading to Chicago, Illinois he enjoyed over four months of success there before moving to New York City, where they played for an additional four months more prior to returning to New Orleans in 1916. Once home, Tom immediately put together another band with Larry Shields, Alcide Nunez, and Ragbaby Stevens, then went to work for Bert Kelly in New York City, replacing the Original Dixieland Jass Band at Reisenweber in 1918. He started doing freelance recording work with New York dance and novelty bands, then joined the band of Harry Yerkes.
Brown also played the Vaudeville circuit in the acts of Joe Frisco and Ed Wynn. Late 1921 he returned to Chicago and joined Ray Miller’s Black & White Melody Boys, with whom he made more recordings. During this period he also co-lead a dance band with his brother Steve. Back in New Orleans he played with Johnny Bayersdorffer and Norman Brownlee’s bands, making a few excellent recordings.
During the Great Depression he supplemented his income from music by repairing radios. He opened up a music shop and a junk shop on Magazine Street. He played string bass in local swing and dance bands. With the revival of interest in traditional jazz he played in various Dixieland bands in the 1950s. Making his last recording just weeks before his death, his trombone playing apparently did not suffer from the fact that he had neither teeth or dentures at the time. Trombonist Tom Brown, who also played string bass, passed away in New Orleans on March 25, 1958.
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